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Proto-Yŋòrtuèian
Phonology Proto-Yŋòrtuèian did not make a distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants. Many vowels changed, and some new vowels emerged from the old ones. In addition, all four fricatives lenited, leaving only one fricative and adding a new consonant /r/. Both tables have romanizations for each phoneme. Grammar The ablative case was replaced in part by postpositions. Also, the masculine and feminine genders merged into a common gender. Due to this, only some suffixes from each of three of the inflectional paradigms were used in a new merged inflectional paradigm. Verbs Unlike nouns, verbs had only one inflectional paradigm. Unlike most other parts of the language, Proto-Yŋòrtuèian derived its tenses, aspects, moods, and verbal suffixes from Proto-Pogeduimogan, instead of from Proto-Ydtobogȧntiaky. This was mostly due to the relatively late era the language was spoken in. The marking of transitivity disappeared in Proto-Yŋòrtuèian. In some cases, however, transitivity became a lexically marked quality, as the original suffixes were kept but heavily eroded. More verbs than before are irregular, and due to sound change (and common usage in some verbs) many regular verbs became moderately or heavily irregular. Some examples of heavily irregular verbs are hèh, tematel, rimat. Unlike in other related languages of the time, the locative copula did not remain in Proto-Yŋòrtuèian and became used as a preposition. Proto-Yŋòrtuèian verbs have become slightly more irregular. Person and number were not marked in verbs, and in other related languages aren't either. Verbal Distinction Verbs distinguished four things: tense, aspect, mood, and voice. The three tenses are: anterior past, past, non-past. The anterior past was used to express the pluperfect, the remote past, and the relative past. The past was used to express the perfect, and the recent past. The non-past expressed the present, the future, and relative future. The three aspects are: repetitive, initial, progressive. The repetitive expressed habituality and iterativity. The initial expressed the inchoative and prospective aspects. It also expressed simple present in the present. The progressive expressed both the continuous and the progressive. The four moods are: indicative, subjunctive, subjunctive II, and imperative. The first subjunctive (or subjunctive I) was used in the same situations as the older subjunctive and conditional moods. The second subjunctive (or subjunctive II) was used in the same situations as the older optative and potential moods. The interrogative was not considered a separate mood, and unlike other moods was expressed using the auxiliary adverb kepò. The three voices (there may have been more, though) are: active, passive, and antipassive. There may have been a reflexive voice. However, reciprocal expressions were rare and not regarded as a distinct voice in verbal inflection. Verbs conjugated for active voice are slightly shorter than for others because active voice is unmarked. Conjugation Proto-Yŋòrtuèian verbs distinguish less things than in Proto-Ydtobogȧntiaky and as a result use less suffixes. Some verbs add an -è before some suffixes to make the word easier to pronounce. A stands for anterior past, P stands for past, N stand for non-past. Nouns The five declensions of Proto-Ydtobogȧntiaky changed and simplified most in Yŋòrtuèian languages due to sound change and less disambiguation resulting from less cases. This and the reduction of three genders to two caused great similarity in many declinational suffixes, which led to even less cases in some later languages. First Declension Nouns of this declension are always common. Second Declension Nouns of this declension are always neuter. Sometimes an <è> may be added before the instrumental suffix to make the word pronounceable. Third Declension Nouns of this declension can be either gender. Category:Ydtobogȧntiaky languages